VP Mike Pence did not stand for unified Korea at Opening Ceremony

The host nation always marches last, so the show of unity from the two Koreas capped off the procession of nearly 3,000 athletes from 92 countries at the new $109 million Olympic stadium. The PyeongChang Games mark the first time North and South Korea will compete as one at the Olympics, but Vice President Mike Pence apparently did not deem the moment worthy of applause.

Pence was seated between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The dictator’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and the country’s 90-year-old nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, were seated a row behind.

The White House official says Pence stood only for the U.S. team, despite other people in the box standing and applauding when athletes from the two Koreas walked in together.

Kim Yo Jong, top right, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sits alongside Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of North Korean Parliament, and behind U.S. Vice President Mike Pence as she watches the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP)

Pence has been outspoken about North Korea’s history of human rights issues and met with defectors from the country on Friday.

Karen & I were honored to meet w/ victims of the oppressive North Korean regime. We heard the harrowing stories of defectors who risked life & limb for freedom, & from Fred Warmbier, father of the late Otto Warmbier. We admire their resilience. #VPinASIApic.twitter.com/90kUlGSXG7

“Make no mistake about it, what we witnessed in Pyongyang, and we witnessed again yesterday, on the eve of the Olympics — what President Moon said last night, he hopes will be an Olympics of peace — was once again an effort on the part of the regime in Pyongyang to display their ballistic missiles,” Pence told reporters, “To display a military that continues to make menacing threats across the region and across the wider world.”

Athletes from North and South Korea wave Korean unification flag as they arrive during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP)